Epicor Prophet 21
10 Reviews 4/5A full ERP system designed by Epicor Software for distribution/wholesale trade companies.
About Epicor Prophet 21
Epicor Prophet 21 business software has been developed to fit distribution businesses and is continually improved with a focus on making it easier for distributors to grow their businesses. Prophet 21 combines proven distribution expertise with a new end-to-end Web-enabled infrastructure and modern technology stack: HTML5, Angular JS, .NET, and SQL Server. On-premise and cloud deployment options are available. Distributors can start with the on-premises version and migrate to the cloud as their business grows.
Epicor is committed to providing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions that drive growth and profitability. Epicor continues to be on the forefront for the delivery of enterprise applications that provide tier-one functionality with a low total cost of ownership (TOC).
Epicor Prophet 21 - Technology that Drives Growth for Distributors
Epicor understands that meeting your customers’ expectations and demands is getting increasingly complex. As you strive to improve business performance, achieve growth, and maximize profitability, your customers continue to demand faster, more accurate service, more product and service options, and better overall quality. The Epicor Prophet 21 system has been consistently helping wholesale distributors meet these challenges. In fact, Epicor has 5 times as many second-time ERP buyers than the industry at large. Distributors who know what they need buy Epicor.
Today, you need a software solution that is based on a platform that you can implement quickly without substantial cost to your business. The Prophet 21 system is designed so that your distribution business can scale, adapt, and grow without costly system modifications.
Beyond the technology, only Epicor can provide complete business digitization along with the refined distribution expertise that comes from 50 years of industry experience and hundreds of committed employees with deep domain expertise. With more than 1,600 wholesale distribution customers throughout the world using the Prophet 21 system, Epicor is one of the leading technology partners for the distribution industry.
Next-Generation Business Software for Wholesale Distributors
Prophet 21 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is designed to address the challenges of today’s dynamic distribution industry-enabling distributors to take full advantage of modern, cloud-ready technologies to help them grow profitable businesses faster. Epicor is uniquely positioned to help you achieve the business results you need to sustain a long-term competitive advantage and growth.
Epicor Prophet 21 runs on any browser, improving usability and mobility while allowing distributors access from any device, anywhere. It’s built on industry leading, proven SaaS technologies for lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and continuous improvement’a future-ready platform for digitalization of your business needs today and well into the future.
As a cloud-based solution, it provides greater flexibility to scale, extend, customize, and configure it to work the way you work with full extensibility throughout the stack via an application programming interface (API) that will give businesses the ability to add specialized vertical functionality for core or adjacent markets.
Dedicated Tenancy Cloud Option
Epicor is also offering a dedicated tenancy deployment option which allows organizations to securely meet their need for scalability and customization in a cloud-based platform. In contrast to the multi-tenant model, which achieves significant scale economies by deploying clients on the same application server and the same database, dedicated tenancy provides each client its own database, with the dynamic elasticity and cost benefits of shared application servers. It is best suited for organizations with complex business processes and software needs for functions such as accounting, financial reporting, distribution, or manufacturing.
This deployment method allows customers the benefits of strong isolation; ease of on-premises to cloud conversion, point-in-time restores, and greater control of upgrade timing. Moreover, with isolated processes per tenancy, customers can create and utilize customizations without affecting other customers in the server network.
Deep functionality built for distributors
The Epicor Prophet 21 system is a complete, effective and efficient end-to-end business management solution, designed for today’s distributor in a single application with capabilities including:
- Mobility
- eCommerce
- Deep analytics and business intelligence
- Financial Management
- CRM
- Order Management
- Pricing
- Purchase Management
- Warehouse Management
- Service and Maintenance Management
Newest Developments: world-class eCommerce, powerful business intelligence, enterprise content management.
Epicor Commerce Connect, a state-of-the-art Magento-based eCommerce platform, for Prophet 21 changes the game for B2B eCommerce in the distribution world, allowing distributors to deliver a world class user experience with a total eCommerce solution that is delivered with total back-office integration.
Epicor Data Analytics, offers powerful mobile functionality and enhanced BI and analytical tools to drive growth and profitability for distributors, using the business data already in the Epicor Prophet 21 system. With responsive connectivity to your mobile devices, this cloud-based solution comes fully integrated with Prophet 21 for a quick ROI for today’s fast-moving business.
DocStar Enterprise Content Management (ECM), an Epicor solution, is a scalable, strategic process automation solution that allows you to manage all of your content securely and can be deployed either as a software installation in your IT infrastructure, or in the Cloud. With DocStar, you can capture and manage text, PDF, e-mail, video, HTML, and more. It provides a web-based, cross-browser platform to quickly find and retrieve files from desktop or mobile devices. You can automate mission critical business processes, like accounts payable and expense approvals.
Designed for your industry
The Epicor Prophet 21 system is designed to streamline the various distribution processes in today’s dynamic supply chain. Epicor provides industry-leading solutions for emerging distributors, mid-sized companies, and subsidiaries of large multinationals. Epicor Prophet 21 has more out-of-the-box distribution capabilities built in than any other software on the market-vessel & container cost tracking, sales tax, PO variance queues, kitting, assembly and production orders, job management, VMI, buying trend analysis, special project pricing, and more-all integrated in an end-to-end solution just for distributors. A feature-rich application with specific depth in a number of industries, the Prophet 21 system has been developed to manage the requirements of distribution verticals including:
- Fasteners
- Fluid Power
- HVAC
- Industrial
- Jan/San
- Medical Supply/Pharmaceuticals
- Paper and Packaging
- Petroleum
- Tile and Flooring
- Safety Supply
Pricing
- Purchased and subscription options available
- Contact an Epicor vendor for more details
Product Overview
Market Focus
Ratio of reviewers by organization size.
Industry Focus
User Reviews of Epicor Prophet 21
Write a Review
Overall, I’m happy with system, but it has limited reporting for kitting and assemblies. We continue to pay them for service and updates that we don’t use. I do like that we can enter our orders and it can help us purchase it well.
Rich distribution functionality; latest technology
The Good…
The focus on technology improvement; rich distribution knowledge - they know how to talk distribution.
The Bad…
Some support has been sent offshore. These employees are new and still learning.
It definitely has some pro’s with being able to track inventory and orders. But if I had to do it over again, I would NEVER go with this company. They are absolutely disgusting in getting every penny they can get! We have for the past 5 years with this system spent at the MINIMUM of $40,000 for ESSENTIAL ITEMS! They are such an awful company!
The Good…
I appreciate their support staff that quickly respond to questions I have regarding the complex system. (Remember though… you are paying at the minimum of $829.04 per user to use this and if they can’t fix it then you pay someone $175 per hour to walk you through the fix)
The Bad…
SO expensive. It would be one thing if I just paid a one time fee for an incredible system that I can rely on but paying over $40k per year is unbelievable. The system is so complex that you have to have support from Epicor to be able to walk you through day-to-day situations that arise. If you make a mistake in the system, expect yourself to have to work on that mistake for 30 minutes because of all of the steps that you have to go through.
P21 allows you to invest in software that is ever changing and growing to meet the needs of their customers, they are continually learning and getting feedback from their customers on how to make the software more user friendly for people in all businesses which i think is great
The Good…
I am very happy with some newly integrated tools within the Production order control portal i think it adds a lot of functionality that is beneficial to the user
The Bad…
The ability to hide deleted items in Assembly Maintenance would be great because if you have a lot of changes you want to know about the changes but you don’t want to see all the parts that are deleted when looking at the assembly
Prophet 21 is a fully-functional ERP that covers all aspects of my business. For distributors, there isn’t a better choice. Prophet 21 offers an entire suite of accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory management, and transaction management programs. It is easy to implement and easy to use.
The Good…
It’s hard to narrow down to just one thing. I really like the interface. It’s crisp and laid out for people who actually use the software. Additionally, most screens can be customized (including adding required fields) to fit the workflow of many businesses. The available programs within the application are comprehensive in scope, and there’s a great search feature that makes programs easy to find.
The Bad…
Implementation can be expensive. It’s powerful software, but sometimes I wish it were less costly.
Prophet 21 is a full-featured, fully scaleable ERP system for medium to large business. Or for smaller enterprises on a growth track. It can handle any or all of accounting, purchasing, inventory management, assembly, routing, price/cost management, etc.
The Good…
Prophet 21 is an open Microsoft SQL database that runs on pretty much any Windows network. It’s easy to access and maintain with standard applications and tools without too much additional training. Because it follows many common Windows paradigms, users can find their way around and will be productive in a shorter amount of time. Prophet 21 is highly adaptable to many types of distribution businesses and brings many features to all aspects of vertical markets that are helpful but not necessarily standard.
The Bad…
It can be complex and a little convoluted in structure to accommodate so many options. Specific solutions are sometimes difficult to implement if not part of the package. As for the elephant in the room, it is rather pricey and licensing isn’t clear on what is included and what is extra.
Prophet 21 helps us to provide better customer service with real-time and accurate information. It also helps our users to easily find the answers with a few simple clicks instead of weeding through paperwork like we did previously.
The Good…
Prophet21 is a distributor centric software that allows us to serve our customers and keep up with changing technology. It is user friendly and allows for easy interface modifications as needed. It also has some nice out-of-the-box features that help us automate our business without having major system modifications.
The Bad…
Prophet21 can be very rigid and unforgiving when little mistakes are made. A wrong click can cause a headache. Still does not outweigh the good.
We are a leader in the Fluid Power Industry in which we design, sell and Service equipment and parts along with manufacture custom hydraulic systems through distribution. We have 2 companies across 9 locations with 3 manufacturing divisions. Each location has a showroom for Front Counter Sales (Point of Sale) and a Service Department with a stocking warehouse. We perform central based purchasing and forecasting mainly with some location based purchasing where needed. We use Prophet 21 software in every aspect of our company across all locations, short of payroll and internal purchasing of our business consumables in a mostly dominant thin client environment. Prophet 21 has a vast amount of features that allows it to be compatible with many different business models throughout several industries which can make it a little over complicated on what to do via data-entry as your company doesn’t use every single piece of functionality and you have to fill in the appropriate area for what your company is using as there are allot of fields and tabs that you could have to update. So it can produce very detailed information if allot of the fields are utilized. Speed is a huge concern with this software as it has multiple layers of programming on top of an outdated platform that makes the data entry workable but painfully slow once you get used to running the software.
The Good…
Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. The Purchasing/Forecasting functionality is top notch and very mold-able to any purchasing model ranging from central purchasing down to individualized seasonal items. Once set up it will let you get away with a smaller procurement department as the system will tell you what you need to order. The vendor is good about fixing issues quickly but sometimes difficult to distinguish between an actual error and a company specific business process. There are a ton of purchasable add-on’s from the Vendor them-self along with even more third party add-on’s that makes this a wonderful software if you have the money and skilled personnel to support it.Recommendations are in order of robustness in each area of business. Purchasing - Very Strong Distribution - Very Strong Sales - Strong (Does not currently have a “true” Point of Sale Module / No security for sales pricing over-rides) Pricing Sales/Purchasing Structures - Strong (Does not show % discount for orders / Rebates are cumbersome) Service & Maintenance - Strong to Medium: Needs a lot of work for differences in business models for Service. Scheduling a service is a challenge. Manufacturing - Light: When they mean light manufacturing they mean it. Not a CNC type manufacturing add-on. They are currently working on a scheduling functionality that will help a ton but would still be a lot of work to run a large caliber manufacturing facility using this add-on. Some things are nice and some other are horridly missing. There is better software that handles manufacturing easier. CRM - Thumbs is half down: Can get away with the baseline functionality and better with some customization but a purchasable integrated add-on’s make’s a world of difference! Reporting - Baseline: Thumbs Down - Need to purchase add-on if you want any business oversight and strong reports. Someone with Highly developed SQL and or C Skills recommended. Crystal skills is a bonus. Can get away with middle of the road knowledge in those areas but the highly developed skills make a world of difference in molding your business processes.
The Bad…
Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. Since this software can mold to a large variety of business models it can make training difficult and long due to the complexities of the software’s advanced features. This also makes data entry combersome as you have to know what fields to enter depending on what functionality you are using. Slow to implement vendor driven Idea’s Network from user ideas. The product feels extremely slow once you get used to running the system and is glitchy because of the method chosen to release updates and advancements. Developers run a continuous improvement program with multiple releases a year so as they are designing new features at the same time they are cleaning errors and glitches rather than waiting a long time for advancements and a rock solid release. This could also be considered good and bad if you need an advancement, you don’t have to wait! The companies move to have the first level of support go to India can lead to frustrations because of the communication blearier along with the new support teams are not yet very knowledgeable with the software and the level of experiences with the software is still being developed
Epicor Eclipse is easy to use and easy to learn. I have only been with this company for about 8 months and had never heard of Epicor or Eclipse and I am getting around pretty good already. Actually I have been for a couple of months now. One thing I like is that there is a whole community of users that share their tips and tricks for using the system which helped. The representatives with the company (that I have spoken with) are patient. I do agree that the support fees are way to high, but, on the other hand, in my opinion they do a lot of behind the scenes work. We are using an older version and I am excited about the chance to move up to a newer, more aesthetically pleasing version in the near future. Epicor offers training after the installation (for a charge per person) in the form of classes held regularly, which is better than I can say from my previous experience with SAP. I can’t really say if I would choose this product again, because we are on an older version, which I don’t like. It looks too much like I am using a mainframe.
The Good…
One thing I like is that there is a whole community of users that share their tips and tricks for using the system which helped. The representatives with the company (that I have spoken with) are patient.
The Bad…
I do agree that the support fees are way to high, but, on the other hand, in my opinion they do a lot of behind the scenes work.
We are a leader in the Fluid Power Industry in which we design, sell and Service equipment and parts along with manufacture custom hydraulic systems through distribution. We have 2 companies across 9 locations with 3 manufacturing divisions. Each location has a showroom for Front Counter Sales (Point of Sale) and a Service Department with a stocking warehouse. We perform central based purchasing and forecasting mainly with some location based purchasing where needed. We use Prophet 21 software in every aspect of our company across all locations, short of payroll and internal purchasing of our business consumables in a mostly dominant thin client environment.
The vast amount of features allows it to be compatible with many different business models throughout several industries which can make it a little over complicated on what to do via data-entry as your company doesn’t use every single piece of functionality and you have to fill in the appropriate area for what your company is using as there are allot of fields and tabs that you could have to update. So it can produce very detailed information if allot of the fields are utilized. Speed is a huge concern with this software as it has multiple layers of programming on top of an outdated platform that makes the data entry workable but painfully slow once you get used to running the software.
Recommendations are in order of robustness in each area of business. Purchasing - Very Strong Distribution - Very Strong Sales - Strong (Does not currently have a “true” Point of Sale Module / No security for sales pricing over-rides) Pricing Sales/Purchasing Structures - Strong (Does not show % discount for orders / Rebates are cumbersome) Service & Maintenance - Strong to Medium: Needs a lot of work for differences in business models for Service. Scheduling a service is a challenge. Manufacturing - Light: When they mean light manufacturing they mean it. Not a CNC type manufacturing add-on. They are currently working on a scheduling functionality that will help a ton but would still be a lot of work to run a large caliber manufacturing facility using this add-on. Some things are nice and some other are horridly missing. There is better software that handles manufacturing easier. CRM - Thumbs is half down: Can get away with the baseline functionality and better with some customization but a purchasable integrated add-on’s make’s a world of difference! Reporting - Baseline: Thumbs Down - Need to purchase add-on if you want any business oversight and strong reports. Someone with Highly developed SQL and or C++ Skills recommended. Crystal skills is a bonus. Can get away with middle of the road knowledge in those areas but the highly developed skills make a world of difference in molding your business processes.
The Good…
Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. The Purchasing/Forecasting functionality is top notch and very mold-able to any purchasing model ranging from central purchasing down to individualized seasonal items. Once set up it will let you get away with a smaller procurement department as the system will tell you what you need to order. The vendor is good about fixing issues quickly but sometimes difficult to distinguish between an actual error and a company specific business process. There are a ton of purchasable add-on’s from the Vendor them-self along with even more third party add-on’s that makes this a wonderful software if you have the money and skilled personnel to support it.
The Bad…
Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. Since this software can mold to a large variety of business models it can make training difficult and long due to the complexities of the software’s advanced features. This also makes data entry combersome as you have to know what fields to enter depending on what functionality you are using. Slow to implement vendor driven Idea’s Network from user ideas. The product feels extremely slow once you get used to running the system and is glitchy because of the method chosen to release updates and advancements. Developers run a continuous improvement program with multiple releases a year so as they are designing new features at the same time they are cleaning errors and glitches rather than waiting a long time for advancements and a rock solid release. This could also be considered good and bad if you need an advancement, you don’t have to wait! The companies move to have the first level of support go to India can lead to frustrations because of the communication blearier along with the new support teams are not yet very knowledgeable with the software and the level of experiences with the software is still being developed
